The Waikato Times THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 851, 13 December 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times

THURS DAY, DECEMBER 13, 1877.

Equal and exact justice to all men. •i wnatever slate or persuasum. roiij{i v- r political ##■ • • liere shall the Presi the Pkoplb's ri^it niaintaiu, UnaNvei by iniuencPHnrl tiahpitud liv ■- 'm

Tee re-ltsttingof the Canterbury runs has been the be-all and end-all of legislation with a small knot of politicians m the Assembly during the pnßt session, and has been tha pivot on. which has turnei the fate of I parties. At ii» head was Mr Stafford, * why of late years has sjitwmed the

reasury beuches, that tho more , readily as a pri\ ate member ho might carry off the material spoils of political warfare. And tho extreraity of the Assembly m tho last ..session has been, the opportunity ci this pastoral section. The fate of tho Atkinson or Grey party, into which the House hud divided, depended upon the adhesion of a simill section of members, whose price was a monopoly of the Canterbury runs for ten years. This iniquitous compact was consumated m the Land Bill introduced by a member ot the late Ministry, Mr Reid, and which bill the present Ministry dared not hope to drop and live. The Act provides m clause 112 : — Every holder of. a depasturing license whoso rent has been determined as hereinbefore provided, who ahall on or before the Brat day of May, one thousand | eight handled and eighty, pay the firsc year's ren m adt«aoe, and m other I rospeota comply with the provisions of ihia Act, Bd all be entitled from thenceforth tv hold his ran as from the first day of M»y, oae thousand eigha hundred an<l eigh'y, until the firan day of May, one <&ou*aud eight hundred and uincty, suttj^o. to the provisions of thin Aot, aud tueruafcer the depastiMng l^oonaa and all rights (if any) created tbereaader aboil absoiUGtly oedwe «ad decormioQ. The Lords, however, we*e not content with this rao.opnly. When the Land Bill which contained tho above clause was referred fco them, they altered tue date to whioh the licence may bo held from May of 1890 to May ot 1895, giving- the [ Bqudtterß ot Canterbury a monopoly over tho public land, nor. of ten, but iof fifteen years, In the thinness ot the House at the latter end of the session, Minis ws found themselves unable to oppose this alteration made m the Bill by the Upper House, and it was agreed to by a ! small majority. Sinoe then the Premier has resisted the consummation Of the measure by refusing 1 to recommend the Governor to assent to it, but was ultimately forced into suoh recommendation, as our telegrams of to-day inform ns, by the pressure put upon him by the Governor, who refused to assent to measures which it was absolutely necessary for the Government should be assented to by him — such, for instance, as tho Supply Bills unlessthe L;indßiil wasinc'udcd wi*h them. In this manner, n measure to lock up the lands of Canterbury, now the lands of a colony, for the aggrandisement of a particular class, h;iß been effi-eted, unless m a session held early m the year, or by a retrospective measure passed m the next session, at its ordinary time of being held, this purchase of votes with the people's laud can be set aside.